It had first been mooted in Judge Popplewell’s verdict on 1985’s Bradford fire, but the driving force behind it was the late and unlamented MP David Evans, a former chairman of Luton Town. Evans, who belonged to what was colloquially known as ‘The Broadmoor Wing’ of the Conservative Party, took the unprecedented decision in 1985 to ban all away fans from Luton’s Kenilworth Road ground satta king following a famous riot by Millwall supporters. Meanwhile, Luton’s own supporters had to register and gain an identity card which was swiped at the turnstiles.

Moynihan, crassly, sported a Charlton Athletic tie for his TV appearances – he was MP for nearby Lewisham East at the time, but wore his soccer knowledge lightly as he told us again and again the only way to stop hooliganism was for all fans to carry cards. The then government was football-unfriendly, with the exception of Nottingham Forest-supporting Ken Clarke, and made no effort to tap into the sport’s popularity like every subsequent government has.

Thatcher’s provincial market town upbringing and education at Oxford had kept her far from professional football and the industrial regions it sprang from. Her reign coincided with the darkest years of English hooliganism but she adamantly refused to accept that it was social, rather than footballing problems, that she was dealing with.

The opposition to ID cards was near-universal amongst football folk and the whole sorry episode was instrumental in giving birth to a national supporters’ association in response to a suddenly politicised environment.